Slide into your Birkenstocks, tie on your recycled bamboo apron and turn up Steely Dan on the stereo (or tune to Portlandia on ABC) because today we’re sprouting legumes!
If you were the kid with the mushroom kit or the Venus flytraps on your windowsill that you’d race home from school to just sit and… watch, you’ll love sprouting. If you rather like watching any creation you’ve made grow, you’ll love sprouting, too. So much veiw-able gratification as they do their sprouty thing.
The rest of you? Read on to see why it’s a good idea to try this cooking technique. And scroll below for some recipes. Me, personally, I avoid eating too many legumes: I find them super rough on my guts. Sprouting is certainly the best approach I’ve found for making them a smoother experience.
First, why sprout?
Sprouting kills toxins
Phytic acid, a toxin found in the fibre of legumes, leaches calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc from our bodies. Not great. Sprouting neutralises this nasty acid (as does soaking before cooking). It also inactivates aflatoxins – potent carcinogens – in grains.
Sprouting increases vitamins
It increases the amount of B vitamins and carotene in the little beady things. Vitamin C is also created in the process.
Sprouting (almost) fixes the farting issue…
….because the complex sugars responsible for intestinal gas are broken down into simpler glucose molecules.